Meaning: 1. A non-rigid dirigible balloon (airship) without an internal supporting framework, often provided with a cabin underneath for transport of people, cargo, etc. 2. (US, offensive) An obese person. 3. (UK, offensive) A pompous person, someone given to bloviating.

Notes: We are tempted to use today's Good Word facetiously because of its sound. There are several disparaging words that rhyme with it: wimp, simp, pimp and limp to name a few. It has spawned several derivations, such as blimpery "pomposity", blimpian "pompous", and blimpish "pompous". Today's word is rarity: a word that is pronounced exactly as it is spelled.

In Play: The Zeppelin was not a blimp because it had a metal framework. However, its name was spoofed in the name of the rock group Led Zeppelin. The idea for the name, no doubt, originated in the American expression "Her suggestion went over like a lead balloon." Don't forget the derivations from this word, particularly useful in the campaign season: "The congresswoman's speech carried her to such blimpian heights as were never before achieved at a political convention."

Word History: Today's Good Word began as an abbreviation. During WWI the British experimented with large balloons capable of transport. The first nonrigid "lighter-than-air-aircraft" was designated the A-limp (nonrigid) when it was superseded by an improved version, called the B-limp. Dirigible refers to either type of airship, with or without rigid internal structure. This word was borrowed from the French, who inherited it as the adjective of the Latin verb dirigere "to direct, get straight". The past participle of this verb is directus "straight". English feasted on this word, then went back for the leftovers. (We are happy that David McWethy directed today's Good Word to us and didn't give up when it floated past us blimpishly the first time.)

Who knew blimp and dirigible were not synonymous? Not I. Even looked up Goodyear Blimp, thinking I had seen rigid structure. Nope. Indeed a blimp, three of them in fact. Once again a mind blowing column. My mind needs frequent blowing out. Cobwebs, you know.

The word popped into my mind during the annual Wal-Mart annual shareholders meeting (held in Fayetteville, AR, during the first weekend in June, b/c Barnhill Arena--on the U of A campus--is the only facility in NW Arkansas that can hold that many revelers). It most resembles a cross between a tent revival and a county fair, as a horde of 12,000 swarm this tranquil college town of 60,000.

One of the pieces of brain-detritus that keep accumulating in the synapses (which will eventually clog the neural pathways to the point where the remembrance of the way home won't be able to get through the congestion) was the distinction between a blimp and a dirigible, but the derivation from "B-limp" was a new one to me.

There's lots of entertainment at every annual soiree, with a First Place tie this year for The Most Merriment-Making being between the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders and the annual announcement of a 2-for-1 stock split.

It has become de rigueur for the Goodyear Blimp to make an appearance (with rides in the gondola being offered to those with big enough wigs); this year a man on a home-made motorized parasail flew close enough to take pictures of the passengers inside--taking pictures of him.

Care to guess how many licensed blimp pilots there are in the United States? Or how much one gets paid for getting The Spirit of Goodyear safely from its home base in Akron, OH, flying a series of half-hour grand circles around the city, and returning home?

(I KNOW what street I live on...I just momentarily blanked on how to get there).

Yr report was successful! I shall now buy a share or two of the newly split stock, so I can attend the next revival/fair. But you must solve your most tantalizing mystery: how many blimp pilots are there in the U.S.?

Made me think of Blimpie, once my favorite sandwich shop. The people who owned the local Blimpie some years ago relocated a few towns away and were there for years, but I went looking for them two weeks ago and alas they were gone.

During the last half of the previous century, when I was important enough to hobnob with the Airport Manager and get to see the Goodyear guys erect the portable mooring pylon that the G.B. was tethered to (but not enough to rate a ride) I was told that there were six qualified-by-the-FAA "LTA" (Lighter Than Air) pilots on the Goodyear payroll. Four were assigned to the four Goodyear blimps, with two for rotation or standby; all were fully capable of doing every task associated with the blimp, from navigation to repairs, and each were paid $62,500--which at the time was REAL money.

Other trivia: Goodyear got into the blimp business during the Second World War, using them to report on North Atlantic sea traffic from far beyond the range of enemy aircraft, decades before the job was given to satellites ; there were no other blimps in the U.S. private sector; the boarding hatch is only 23" wide; it's not--nor will it be--handicap-accessible, as boarding passengers must climb up a 5-step ladder; & the cabin on a real blimp (as opposed to ones shown on the wide screen, where passengers roam the alleys & congregate in the on-board lounge) is TINY--about the size of a six-passenger executive aircraft.

If someone will tell me how to post a picture, I took one of the blimp as it passed over my house; I tried the bracket-Img-bracket button, but all I got for the effort was the addition of bracket-Img-bracket to the text.

David McWethy wrote:If someone will tell me how to post a picture, I took one of the blimp as it passed over my house; I tried the bracket-Img-bracket button, but all I got for the effort was the addition of bracket-Img-bracket to the text.

Here's something from an old post that should help. Clicking quote opens the reply window and reveals the code:

Just quote this message to see the code to display an image. Note that the image has be somewhere on the internet, not on your PC (unless, of course, you're dumb enough to have your PC on the Internet without a firewall, " ... but none of us will ever go there because we're all far too groovy ..." ). If you've tried to post images from your PC, you were doomed to start.

Et voilà!

Check out the FAQ on this topic, too. There's good information in the rest of the FAQ section, too.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by Slava on Sun Jul 22, 2012 1:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Philip, before you consign all subway shops to perdition, find a Quiznos, then order an angus beef with everything on parmesan-rosemary bread. Then eat it there while it's still hot. After eating one, I agree with you on all others.

Apparently uploading my pictures to Photobucket and then downloading them down to this site works; this is my first, so I next need to learn how to crop and resize, but thar she is, in all her radiant beauty:

Res ipso loquitor: Et voilà, indeed!

(And hold that "viola" thought--I have a "rabbit chasing" story that uses that word significantly, but reality is intruding on my ability to have fun so it'll have to wait.)